Erdogan visits Azerbaijan in first trip to Baku since Moscow-brokered cease-fire

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit staunch ally Azerbaijan on Wednesday in his first visit to the country since a cease-fire between Baku and Yerevan was brokered last month by Moscow.

Although his office did not provide details of the two-day trip, Erdogan is expected to meet with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev and attend a military parade on Thursday.

After nearly six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, ethnic Armenians withdrew from some parts of the territory. The hostilities killed over 5,500 troops and many civilians, according to Armenia’s Health Ministry and Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry. Turkey was credited by observers for helping tip the conflict in favor of Baku.

Ankara announced Tuesday that Russia and Turkey will monitor the Karabakh truce through a joint peacekeeping center that will launch “as soon as possible.” Turkish officials said the center will be established in an area designated by Azerbaijan. According to a memorandum of understanding signed by Ankara and Moscow this week, the joint center will be in Azerbaijan instead of inside the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Turkey pressed hard to have it in the latter, but the Russian side did not agree.

Last month, the Turkish Parliament voted to deploy a mission to carry out the center’s directives and monitor possible violations of the truce. The deployment is set to last one year. Civilian personnel could be deployed alongside security forces, although its size has yet to be determined by Erdogan’s government.